Next Modern Warfare may be a prequel; Raven likely working on Call of Duty

An anonymous source who previously identified many Xbox-related rumors leaked that Infinity Ward’s next game will be a prequel to the original Modern Warfare, Call of Duty 4. The details were a lot of negatives – the game will not be called “Modern Warfare 3,” will not use a new engine, and will not be released this year. The alleged game focuses on Ghost and will revisit many of the areas of the first two Modern Warfare games, but through a different perspective. This seems to align with rumors from 2009 that Ghost would be getting his own spin-off game like the comic mini-series. If this rumor is true, Infinity Ward must have been hit pretty hard by its talent exodus to not be able to complete a game on its two year cycle, especially using older scenery with no new engine.

In a related matter, the rumors that Raven Software (the studio behind Singularity, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Wolfenstein) have been conscripted to the ever-growing roster of studios working on Call of Duty seems more likely. Their website currently lists a job for Lead FX Artist on “an established console-based, realistic, first-person military shooter.” Raven has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision for some time now, making the established “military shooter” an obvious reference.